Press room

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3/16/2018 12:00:00 AM CENTRAL
Updated: 6/25/2018 3:58:20 PM CENTRAL
For more information, contact Marketing and Public Relations.
John Owen, M.D., to Lead Emergency Department

On June 1, 2018, John Owen, M.D., will take a leadership position with Liberty Hospital.  As Vice President of Emergency Medicine Services, Dr. Owen will transition the Liberty Hospital Emergency Department (ED) to a hospital-employed physician model; currently Envision (a national physician-management group), manages ED physician services and employs the ED physicians at Liberty Hospital.  Dr. Owen’s duties will include serving as the Medical Director of the ED, physician management and oversight, as well as working some shifts providing direct patient care in the ED.

While Dr. Owen will come on board in June, the employment of ED physicians will begin on July 1.  On February 1, 2017, Envision (EmCare) Physician Services replaced the Schumacher Group as the provider of physician services in the Liberty Hospital ED.  At that time, Liberty Hospital was unaware of the difficulties its patients would face with insurance (Liberty Hospital accepts most insurance plans, but Envision has been unable to become a network provider for key insurance companies).  Liberty Hospital’s patients were left “out of network” for emergency physician fees.  Since Envision has not been completely successful in contracting with the same network providers as Liberty Hospital, Liberty Hospital believes it is necessary to make a change for its patients and community.  As Liberty Hospital takes this opportunity to invest in its own employed physicians, we are confident that this effort will improve quality and service standards in Liberty Hospital’s Emergency Department as well.

Dr. Owen, a board certified physician in both Emergency Medicine and Family Medicine, was a founding partner of The Liberty Clinic and practiced medicine in Liberty for 25 years.  Since 2015, he has been the Director of the Emergency Department for Mosaic in St. Joseph, with an annual volume of 63,000 patients in a high acuity department.  Dr. Owen has experience transitioning EDs from outside management to hospital-employed models, and in doing so has raised patient satisfaction scores from the fourth to the 99th percentile. These scores were improved while improving the efficiency in the ED and improving relationships with physicians, staff and other agencies. 

Dr. Owen has extensive experience in emergency medicine, beginning with his career in the Air National Guard. He is a retired Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserve.  Dr. Owen will focus on quality of care and improved patient experience in Liberty Hospital’s Emergency Department, in addition to outreach with area EMS organizations.  Dr. Owen is a board member of the Missouri chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians and is a stroke and STEMI surveyor for the State of Missouri.